Our Guide to Traveling Around Australia: Costs, Breakdowns, and Purchases
I have always been a bit of a stats geek.
On things that interest me anyway. Pythagoras and fractals can go and take a hike. I love practical stats, like;
"How much fuel will we burn driving over 100kms of sand dunes at 20PSI tyre pressures in deep sand on a 38deg day."
"If I carry a 20kg pack, how fast can I walk over that mountain."
"If I eat this dodgy looking sausage roll, will I get food poisoning."
You know. Practical.
So in honour of my nerdiness, and to give back to those that helped out in my pre-trip research by presenting their nerdiness content, I present you with the below information. We / I, mostly, have gone and number crunched all the practical numbers I could get my grubby paws on, to present to you, what it is to circumnavigate Australia in a cream brick.
TOTAL COST OF TRIP: $55,639.67
Cost split: $51,139.67 savings + $4,500 cash
Cost per day: $211.56 (over 263 days)
Cost per km: $1.59 (over 34,898kms)
OVERALL COSTS SUMMARY:
CAFES & RESTAURANTS - $5,333.89
TAKE AWAYS - $540.20
GROCERIES - $8,399.62
BILLS - $7,101.36
ACCOMMODATION - $2,704.26
FUEL - $10,631.32
GEAR (camera, surf boards etc.) - $10,033.05
VEHICLE (services, spare parts etc.) - $5,165.95
EXPERIENCES - $1,230.02
DISTANCE / DRIVING STATS:
Kilometre count: 34,898kms
Days on the road: 263 days
States visited: 5 states and 1 territory
All 4 points of the compass: North - Cape York (Qld), West - Steep Point (WA), South - Wilsons Prom (Vic), East - Byron Bay (NSW)
Driving split: GL 65% and KL 35%. KL did a lot more early on, but was happy to be chauffeured up the East Coast home 😂
NIGHTS ON THE ROAD:
Nights in a bed: 20 nights
Nights on a couch: 1 night
Nights in a RTT: 236
Nights in a ground tent: 6 nights
FUEL STATS:
Total Fuel cost: $10,631.32
Cost per day: $40.42
Cost per km: $0.30
Fuel used: 5,228.50 litres
Average fuel consumption: 15.45L/100km
Highest fuel price paid: $2.77/L at Archer Roadhouse Cape York
Highest fuel price seen: $3.09 at Nullagine Roadhouse Pilbara
ACCOMMODATION STATS:
Overall cost of accommodation: $2,704.26
Caravan Parks: 9
Roadhouses: 8
Motels: 2
Hotels: 1
Friends' houses: 3
Showgrounds: 4
National Parks: 27
Random Free camps (roadside stops, state forests, beach camps etc.): 46 ish - tough to add this one up!
Swapping our broken RTT in Port Macquarie
VEHICLE STATS:
Overall vehicle costs: $5,165.95
Vehicle damage costs: $2,457.21
Cost of services: $2,708.74
End of trip ODO: 208,492
No. of services: 3
Average service cost: $902.91
Vehicle damage:
blown driver side shock absorber (Broome),
Crack in Aux fuel tank bung (unsure how it happened, but identified in James Price)
Dent in rear Aux fuel tank (rock drop in Kennedy Ranges 4x4 track)
2 windscreen chips (1 from car driving past on Gibb Rd, WA and 2nd from a whirly wind around Eighty Mile Beach, WA
panel denting from hitting a tree in Byfield NP
FOOD STATS:
Overall Food Costs: $14,273.71
Cafes, restaurants, pubs, hotels: $5,333.89
Groceries: $8,399.62
Takeaways: $540.20
GEAR STATS:
Overall Gear Costs: $10,033.05
Gear broken/lost:
DJI Mini 3Pro drone (crashed in The Lost City in Limmen National Park, NT)
GoPro10 (dropped and screen cracked in Exmouth WA)
Joby tripod (fastener cracked in Albany WA)
Goal Zero Nomad 100W solar panel (worn out from trip and disposed of in Brisbane Qld)
1 x Birkenstocks size 43 (lost in Karijini WA - funny story, it was either dingos or our lovely neighbour)
DJI Action 2 (lost in the surf at Hat Head)
3 x Roof top tents (first replaced Brisbane, 3 days pre-trip, second replaced in Darwin and third in Port Macquarie)
KL’s reading glasses (Perth ish area - left behind in accommodation)
Pop up kettle (KL melted on the stove in Cape Hillsborough Qld)
Beard trimmer - died mid shave in Geraldton - had to walk around with half a beard for a night
85L Upright Bushmans Fridge (fixed under warranty - gas leak)
Gear bought:
DJI Mini 3Pro (insurance replacement received Darwin NT)
Sony A7C mirrorless camera (purchased Darwin NT)
DJI Action 2 (purchased Perth WA)
Redarc 112W amorphous solar panel (purchased Darwin NT)
Starlink (purchased Kununurra WA)
KL Surf Board (purchased Exmouth WA)
KL Snorkel mask and fins (purchased Exmouth WA)
Pop up kettle (purchased Townsville Qld)
Beard trimmer (purchased Geraldton WA)
Mini fire pit (purchased Townsville Qld)
PAID EXPERIENCES:
Overall cost of experiences: $1,230.02
Experiences:
Swimming with Sea Lions, Baird Bay SA
Cooinda Lodge Boat Tour, Kakadu NT
Spencer Gulf Sea Road Ferry, SA (more travel related but was an experience)
Kununurra Rodeo, Kununurra WA
Nitmiluk Kayak Tour, Katherine NT
Melbourne experiences (golf, NYE festival)
Event Cinemas (KL had to see Mission Impossible), Darwin NT
BILLS STATS:
Overall cost of bills: $7,101.36
2 x Mobile phones - work and play
1 x YouTube Premium - play
1 x Kindle Unlimited - play
1 x Microsoft 365 - work
ASIC - work
Photos storage (apple and google) - work and play
Garmin - middle of nowhere shit hits the fan recovery insurance
Starlink - internet host - work
2 x NIB Private Health - to ease KLs mind.
Epidemic Sound - music host - work
Squarespace - website host - work
Contact Lenses for the blind - for survival.
INCOME STATS:
Overall income: $787.00
- BMAC Supporter donations: $375.00
- Consulting work: $412.00
FITSPO STATS:
Hiking: 275kms over 42 activities totalling 83hrs : 22mins
Running: 29.46kms over 7 activities totalling 3hrs
Surfing: 94kms over 34 activities totalling 50hrs : 29mins
Trail Running: 6.91kms over 2 activities totalling 1hr : 42 mins
Walking: 332.91kms over 93 activities totalling 84hrs : 16mins
Cardio: 2 hours over 3 activities
Strength Training: 3hrs 54mins over 5 activities
Kayaking: 3.3kms over 1 activity
Multisport (running/walking): 29.2kms over 6 activities
Open Water Swims (incl. snorkelling): 7.42kms over 11 activities
Wakeboarding: 6.78kms over 1 activity
Caving: 1.78kms over 1 activity
Frisbee: 3.43kms over 3 activities
Pilates / Yoga: 54mins over 2 activity
Golf: 1 x 9 holes in Melbourne
SOCIALS STATS:
YouTube videos produced:
46 videos published, 3 to edit - total 49 videos (target was 50)
Most popular / viewed video - Ep 10 "Mitchell River Rescue" @ 31,100 views
Least popular / viewed video - Ep 01 "Thank you" @ 43 views
Number of videos scrapped: 9
Gibb River Road (WA): didn't even film this one. We had one of the worst nights on the road at the Pentecost. The Gibb wasn't exactly what we expected in terms of station stays (expensive and busy) etc. We just weren't vibing it and in the end decided not to shoot. We did film a small portion of it while caving at Tunnel Creek. But the footage was so bad due to the lighting, or lack thereof, we decided not to pull it together.
Marble Bar: the hottest town in Australia! We thought could be quite fun to pull a vid together around this and also fossicking. But we got in and realised that there actually wasn't a hole lot we could do. It's a quirky place and we just couldn't find a suitable story. We also thought we could hire fossicking equipment, but turns out there was nowhere to and buying it was way too expensive - who knew gold beepers cost between $2-$4k for the cheap ones!
Karijini NP (WA): We had just filmed Mt Meharry and we were just wanting to enjoy the scenery that is Karijini and not worry about shots, crowds and a story. There are also so many videos out there of Karijini, we just decided to enjoy our time there - we did make a few reels.
Kalbarri NP (WA): We had just boosted down from Shark Bay. It was very hot (36-38deg) and it was stuff we had filmed before really - hiking in gorges etc. We were keen for something new and different.
Lancelin Dunes: We pulled into Lancelin and ummed and ahhed about this one for a few hours. the weather was terrible. Our vibes were low as we had done a heap of driving. We were in need of a break. Do wish we had just pulled thumb and done it. But in the end we decided to head to the Backpackers and just decompress.
Pinnacles NP: We filmed this, but it was short and not that interesting. We thought about combining it with the Lancelin Dunes vid. But it meant we had to backtrack to Lancelin, which we didn't want to do.
Esperance: We were so keen on making an absolute epic vid of Esperance and surounding areas. One of my biggest regrets of the trip is not spending enough time in this area. But, the weather was atrocious. It was forecast for 10 days straight of absolute gale force winds (see Nullarbor vid for example) and rain. We decided to move on after only 4 hours in this magic part of the world.
Melbourne: We were keen on doing a Melbourne city vid. But when we got in (around Christmas) we decided to put the camera down and just refresh. We didn't pick up a camera or tripod for 2 weeks! Was weird but a nice feeling to just enjoy our time there.
Vic High Country / Kosciusko: Essentially budget, time and KL's injured foot meant we had to scrap this one. Which is a big bummer as this was high on both our bucket lists. We are planning on doing this one as its own trip one day and hopefully in convoy 🙂
Subscribers gained 340
Most enjoyable video to produce:
KL - The Mitchell River pt 1 and pt 2, because for whatever reason I was at my most comfortable talking to the camera, it felt natural and I liked the end result. Hardest to edit would have been Picanniny trek for sure, it was a b*tch because we had 100gbs or about 3.5 hours of footage to sift through to make a few vids.
GL - This is a tough one. I really enjoyed the Wet Tropics videos because camping was easy and vibes were high, we were still honeymooning with everything. Mitchell River was just nuts with the situation we found ourselves in and Picaninny was monumentally epic - the hike, the distance covered, the geography/topography. It was an incredible experience. So overall I'd say The Pic Trek vids. But. My favourite edit was the Whales Vid that KL put together - still gives me goosebumps.
Worst video to produce:
KL - ah that's easy. Kennedy Ranges. We were not in the mood, I was struggling mentally, it was hot. It was a lot of things. Yeah not fun.
GL - To be honest these last few videos have been really tough - the East Coast ones. We were in a rush, we kept changing our plans and we didn't know exactly what we wanted to shoot. So it's a bit all over the place. The best vids for me were when we had a set plan and we could execute i.e. a 4x4 track vid, or a NP vid. The wishy washy change our minds ones are frustrating for me. But I agree with KL. The Kennedy ranges one is the single worst experience we've had for producing a vid/ on the trip. I think we were both struggling mentally to pick ourselves up for it. We were in different spaces vid wise (KL being more casual and me being more intense) and the wind, weather and driving had us a bit fatigued to produce the perfect storm - we had escaped Ningaloo School Holiday crowds and the wind had been blowing nonstop for about a week too.
Newsletters issued:
49 published and 1 to draft (this one)
Supporters gained 18 (love ya'll muchly!)
Photos and videos taken:
2 Terabytes or 2,000 Gigabytes
Wowza.
I think that is about every statistic that I can come up with/ think of right now.
If you have anything else you would like us to discuss or add to, please send us a message 🙂
Anyways, keep on keepin' on and until next time.
Love GL and KL!
